Daily Dose of Daoism

Today in my culture and society class we talked about Daoism. It was especially relevant because thinking about re-entry makes you think alot about where you are going in life and your goals, etc. Although I don't agree with everything in the Daoist school of thought, it makes a very good base for thinking about how to find happiness in life, it is very good at cutting through all the bull shit and helping you remember to think about where you are, not just where you are going. There was a story i particularly liked that goes.....

There is this millionaire walking on the beach in Hawaii. As he's walking he comes across this man lying on the beach in the sun. He starts chatting with the man and asks him what he does for work. The man says he is a fisherman.
Then the millionaire asks "why aren't you out on the ocean fishing right now?"
The fisherman responds, "why should I be?"
"Because the day is still young, you still have a long time to catch more fish."
"Why should I want to catch more fish?"
"So you can sell them in the market and make more money."
"Why do I want more money?"
"So you can buy a bigger boat."
"Why do I need a bigger boat?"
"So you can go deeper into the ocean and catch more fish and make even more money."
"Why would I want to do that?"
"So that one day if you work very hard you will have enough money that you will not have to work anymore and you can just sit here on the beach and enjoy life."
The fisherman said, "but I am already doing that."

I like being busy and working hard, that is what makes me happy. But i still like this story because it makes you think about how skewed society has made the purpose of life. People make it seem like you must have money and success to be happy, but its not true. You just must find what makes you happy. Actually, its more like you must learn to be happy in what you find. there is no holy grail perfect life. I think people who go searching for happiness will never find it. The thing is that THIS IS LIFE, right now, and its going by faster than ever. Maybe you get another shot and maybe you don't, but either way you should definitely make the most of the time right now and find a way to be satisfied with the things you are doing. I think I am doing pretty well too, which is why I disagree with other Daoist teachings. Daoism is so passive. I agree that you should live simply and naturally, but I don't think that means you have to live "without action", because many times it is that action (successful or not) that gives me happiness. I am so happy with my life right now, I wouldn't change a thing. If anything, I just wish that I had more lives and more time so that I could take advantage of all the opportunities I am confronted with but don't have time to experience. Life is full of choices and I just wish you could get a few more goes so that the choice changed from yes or no to when.

Being in China has changed how I think about life and it has broadened what I view as "options". People say as you get older you have less and less opportunities and I don't know if that's true, but I feel like right now that life is full of endless opportunities which makes it impossible to know how your life is going to go. I know for the next two years I will be in Seattle finishing school. I am also am starting to work on this internship as an engineering consultant for big companies helping them figure out how to be more sustainable, which I'm really excited about it. But after that I have no idea. Maybe take a little time off school. Maybe go back home to U of M for grad school, maybe go to Iceland for grad school. Maybe start working as an engineer for a while before going back to school. Maybe something I can't even fathom right now, who knows. But that is too far in the future and life will probably change alot before then, no it will definitely change alot before then.
I came up with a metaphor for life the other day that I kind of like. Life is not a path, whoever came up with the metaphor that life is a path is lacking the imagination and sense of adventure that makes life worth living. Life is not even a bunch of paths that you have to choose from, Life is like bush whacking. Think about that for a while. I think it fits pretty well. Sometimes there are thick bushes, but the vistas make it all worth while........